NEW Round Energy Director Design

Dukane introduces Round Energy Director (ED) designs for ultrasonic welding process. Round ED provides plastic part manufacturers a more robust ED design that eliminates variability associated with inconsistent shape, size and melt characteristics of prevailing sharp ED design. Variations, in the size and shape of the ED presents a challenge in maintaining welding process' consistency, aesthetics and functional performance. Sharp ED presents constant challenge of inconsistent shape and size, because of variability in molding equipments and process, unavoidable differences in steel machining for different cavities or accumulation of debris in cavities. Making them as sharp as possible requires EDM (electro-discharge machining) process, which adds additional engineering, set-up, and machining steps to the mold resulting in additional manufacturing cost. Round ED is designed to realize the full potential of modern ultrasonic welding equipment, which facilitates a highly repeatable welding process based on joint design geometry and material.

Industries like medical device manufacturing, electronics, automotive, and others will certainly benefit from more robust ED design that eliminates this source of variability in the joining process and could aid manufacturing in meeting strict quality requirements and improves assembly line performance, leading to higher efficiency, reduced operations cost, and better quality.

Dukane conducted a series of experiments to study the weld quality using both the energy directors and it was concluded that parts with Round Energy directors could be successfully welded with weld strength and consistency matching and even exceeding similar parts that have a 90-deg Shard ED. Results of this study will be reported at ANTEC 2015 at NPE.

Dukane offers a full range of ultrasonic, vibration, spin and hot plate welders, thermal presses, probes, tooling and
software for both OEM and the commercial plastic assembly markets.
Dukane is an ISO 9001:2000 certified manufacturer with 24/7 Service. For
more information on Dukane's 15kHz Ultrasonic Assembly System, and their
complete line of plastic assembly solutions, contact Jason Barton,
National Sales and Marketing Manager. He can be reached at (630)
797-4902 or visit their web site at
www.dukane.com/us.